


Your just a daydream away

by XxAerynxX



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: M/M, Pre-Movie(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-21
Updated: 2015-03-21
Packaged: 2018-03-18 18:54:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3580242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XxAerynxX/pseuds/XxAerynxX
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Following around younger versions of Arthur and Eames (It starts when Arthur is about 17 and Eames is 19 or so)</p><p> </p><p>P.S No idea if I am actually going to continue the story yet</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your just a daydream away

**Author's Note:**

> JUST A QUICK WARNING: Eames and Arthur don't meet immediately as they are in different countries right now and I need this to have a bit of a back story so you can probably skip this to be honest (you might get a little confused later but it isn't to much you miss)
> 
> Also another heads up I don't actually know much about how the American schooling works I just know you can enrol in the army at aged 17 with parents consent and I wanted Arthur and Eames to start this story as young as possible so yeah the whole school thingy might not work out with all this and stuff sorry! (and I don't know much about army stuff for both US and UK either but I have tried to research as much as possible but I never realised how much there is to it 0_0)
> 
> Also not sure if you can smoke in the army, everything I read seemed to say you could but it wasn't very clear so might have got that wrong
> 
> And final note: This first chapter is spaced over a couple years :P

"Do you really have to go Arty?" one of Arthurs younger sister asked sadly as she hugged him tightly. 

"Yeah I do Luce but you'll be able to see me again pretty soon, take care of mom while I'm away though won't you?"

The young girls face immediately lit up with the thought of her big brother trusting her with something as big as looking after their mother.

"I'll take amazing care of her!" she always screamed and Arthur just laughed and petted her head fondly before turning to his other little sister (he called her little but she was 13 now which still freaked him out a little)

Arthur hugged her quickly and then said seriously "You to ok Jess? take care of mom and Lucy won't you?" 

Jessica rolled her eyes slightly at him but smiled none the less. "Of cause I will, I won't just leave them to die now will I?"

Arthur smiled slightly at her before finally turning to his mother who seemed close to tears at the thought of her not-really-a-baby-boy-any-more son going off to join the army.

He smiled at her and then gave her a hug and kissed her cheek before assuring her he would be fine and that he was only just starting so he wouldn't be in any danger yet because they don't send rookies into the middle of a warzone now do they?

"You'd make your dad proud Arthur" She said with a sad smile, her husband had also joined the army and had died a few years prior (not by anything war related though; it had been a drunk driver that had crashed into him while he was making his way home)

Arthur gave both his little sisters a kiss and then hugged his mother again before turning away from his home to go meet with the friend of his who had also joined the army.

~~~

A group of 5 soldiers were currently standing outside with their backs against the wall. 3 of the 5 were currently smoking while the other 2 just watched.

1 of the 2 men currently suddenly spoke up and said in a jokey manner "You betta hide the rest of your pack else Timmy 'll find them"

The other 4 men roared with laughter at the little inside joke concerning one of the other guys they knew called Tim and then another spoke up.

"Isn't he sick or something right now?"

"Yeah that's what he says, he gets sick all the time now doesn't he?" Charlie said to them with a slight roll of his eyes as he dropped his cigarette on the floor and stamped it out.

Everyone else nodded agreeing suddenly serious again when thinking of the man they had known for a bit over 2 years who had recently decided he didn't like the lifestyle they had and wanted out immediately but didn't want to say it outright to anyone.

~~~

Arthur half sat and half collapsed onto his bed and sighed happily while mumbling that he had been waiting for this since he got up.

Michael, Arthurs best friend from home who had also joined, flopped down onto the bed beside his and nodded agreeing with him.

The two lay in silence for a while before Arthur said "you know I didn't realise how exhausting this was" and Michael nodded his agreement still lying face down on his bed who looked like he was ready to fall asleep any minute now.

"You know if you really get that bored of me you could have said" Arthur told him with a laugh while watching his best friend slowly relax more.

In answer Michael laughed back and then replied tiredly with "I could of but I couldn't risk hurting your feelings so I just had to wait for you to catch on."

~~~

"Seriously? These pipsqueaks have been moved up a rank?"

Charlie Eames and Oscar Finn were currently staring at a group of newbies who had just been moved up. While Oscar was frowning Charlie looked utterly delighted at the thought of new people to tease and mess with, which as weird as that sounds was one of the most enjoyable things in his mind.

"Oh come on Oscar have a little hope, these kids could save your life one day!" Charlie said to him with a smile that took up slightly to much of his face.

Oscar just laughed at that and then walked away from the group but Charlie walked over to them all still smiling.

"So loves which one of you is the ballsy one?" Charlie said with a laugh while looking at each of the individual "kids" in turn making up personalities for each of them based on the way they were standing and talking to others around them. It was a game he liked to play and his friends had long since gotten over the freakishness of his almost always being right.

~~~

"-actually serious?"

"They want us to go to war?"

"Do they actually think we are-?"

"Well I don't know bout you guys but I think they are men-"

There were hardly any actual sentences that Arthur could make out in all the shouting that was currently taking place around him.

They had just heard the news that they were going to be going into war zone and everyone was now currently debating if this was actually a good idea.

Instead of joining in Arthur sat quietly eating his food while waiting for everyone to calm down when suddenly Michael jumped out of his seat and started making his way to the middle of the crowd.

Michael had that strange skill of getting everyone's attention without even raising his voice and sometimes without saying anything at all so it wasn't that much of a surprise when the shouting completely stopped and everyone turned to look at him.

"Well I'm not gonna go give some sappy speech about how we just need to believe in ourselves because this is our lives we are talking about and believing doesn't really do much to be completely honest."

Michael paused for a second and then continued "and also some of us won't stay alive but remember you don't really have a choice any more, an order is an order, but also remember this is what we signed up for so if you really want to go and complain that we aren't what you call ready, because when will we ever be completely ready? be my guest but that also makes you a coward. We all joined this army to serve and now we have a chance to!"

There were a lot of shouts of agreement and Arthur just rolled his eyes at his best friend wondering if maybe he rehearsed that or something.

Michael managed to slide back into his seat next to Arthur with a grin and then asked "how did I do?"

"If you were aiming for the cliche war movie speech then well done you pass"he replied with a smile to show he was joking.

Unfortunately Arthur didn't know that was going to be one of the last conversations he had with his best friend.

~~~

"Well boys I guess now is your chance to say your prayers" Charlie said only half joking as he looked at the 2 men left he had become friends with while in the army.

The 3 nodded at each other one last time letting their good byes be silent and then focused back in front of them knowing that any moment could be their last.

"See you in the afterlife if there is one and later if we live Charlie" one of them said and the other joked "if there is an afterlife Mr Eames here will be going to hell."

They couldn't help but smile slightly the split second before they ran forward into the spray of bullets that would kill un uncountable number and injure even more.

~~~

Crouched behind a huge rocks with hardly any bullets left in his gun Arthur glanced around trying to see if anyone he knew was around him as he desperately needed cover so he could re load.

He spotted another solider and quickly ran across to him hoping they were alive enough to watch his back quickly.

He crouched down again and that was when he noticed that it was Michael in front of him which only made logical sense when he thought about it later, though he tried not to think about it again.

Michael was crouching down to but unlike what Arthur had been like he was grimacing in pain and holding his side as if that would help him. When he looked up to see Arthur he only had one eye and his mouth was full of blood as well which he quickly spat out.

"Well fancy seeing you hear Arthur" he said and under normal circumstances that tone of voice he used would have made Arthur laugh but right now when his best friend was bleeding from his side )a bullet wound obviously), only had one eye left, had millions of scratches over him and looked like he had been vomiting blood a few minutes ago the last thing Arthur wanted to do was laugh.

"Shit Michael what the hell happened?" Arthur said panicking while he grabbed Michaels bag for medical supplies even though he knew in his heart it was useless now. 

"Arthur I think there is a bomb so you need to move" Michael replied while shoving Arthurs hands away now panicking slightly as if he just remembered the news.

"What do you mean there is a bomb? come on Michael we need to stop the bleeding or else you will die!" Arthur said panicking slightly but then he heard a series of beeps and dread washed over him knowing what that meant.

Springing into action Arthur grabbed both of their bags and then half carried half dragged Michael away from the boulder as quickly as he could knowing it probably wouldn't help much either way and also knowing the spray of bullets would probably kill him pretty soon if the bomb didn't.

Suddenly Michael slipped causing Arthur to fall to. They looked at each other for a few what must have been mere seconds but felt like hours and then Michael pushed Arthur onto the ground when the explosion happened.

The ringing in Arthurs ears lasted weeks and the image of Michaels dead body protecting him lasted years and really never went away. 

The living solider could only process 3 things at that moment in time. 1: He was staring at the corpse of his best friend, 2:He couldn't hear anything any more and 3: He was on fire (well not literally but he might as well have been)

Arthur wanted to shout and scream and cry and shoot every single person who they were fighting but he found himself paralysed by pain and the feeling of burning while he stared at the one eye of his best friend from home.

~~~

Eames, as he had just started calling himself, was throwing 2 sets of army dog tags from one hand to another while lying on a hospital bed.

At first it had hurt like hell because of the fact that he had been shot in the shoulder (and plenty of other places as well) but he had managed to perfect the position he was sitting in and the way to throw the dog tags that he hardly felt anything any more.

He continued to stare at the circles with the names of 2 of his friends that were now dead (he had wanted to find the other 2 but he knew it was crazy and also he had barely been able to crawl let alone find the right bodies) 

It took him a while to process that two people were standing in front of him but when he did he almost immediately started to reach for where his gun would normally be which of cause jolted his injured shoulder meaning he ha to bite back a string of curse words.

He knew one of the men, he was the doctor who had treated his bullet wounds, but the other man he had no clue. He was standing straight and had that hard look in his eyes that you get from seeing people die around you but at the same time he seemed slightly less guarded than someone fresh out of war so Eames guessed that either he was to old to go into war any more or just one of those cowards who sat behind desks all day planning wars.

He didn't catch a lot of the conversation but it seemed to involve him so he coughed loudly making the two glance over at Eames who was raising his eyebrows.

The doctor explained quickly saying the other man wanted to talk to him but that he didn't believe Eames was ready to move yet due to the injures in his shoulder, knee and ribs but Eames waved it off and slowly started to stand biting his tongue when he put pressure on his right leg.

He grabbed the clutches that were stood up next to his bed and then walked forward and followed the man out of the hospital wing and into one of the long corridors.

The two walked silently for a while until they reached one of the small room that Eames knew was soundproof and suddenly wondered if he had done something against the law and immediately started to think of anything that could be classified as bad.

"Take a seat please"

Eames did as he was told glad that he wouldn't have to stand for this as his leg was already giving up on him

"I would like to invite you to a new rank"

"mmhmm how exiting, and what would that include?"

"Remember that you are sworn to secrecy and telling anyone else of this conversation would be against your country."

"I wouldn't dream of telling anyone else sir."

"We would like you to work with us on a project we are calling dream share."

~~~

Arthur sat on his bed staring at a spot on the wall. 

His hearing had come back so he could hear perfectly fine by now but he had chosen to just not listen to anyone any more.

In his hands were the dog tags that had belonged to Michael and a picture of all his family. The picture had Michael's older brother and younger brother as well as there mother and father but also in the picture were Arthur and his family. 

It had been taken about 2 years before they had left for the army so both of them still had long hair and Michael still had both eyes in tact (just the thought of one of them gone made Arthur shiver) 

The picture had been sent to the two of them by their families (both families called the other cousins though it wasn't true but it felt like it) a few weeks before they had gone into war and Arthur remembered how happy both of them had been to receive it. Arthur had told Michael that he should keep it "as a good luck charm" he had joked and because Arthur had the same photo back home (his own one) so it only made sense Michael keep it with him.

Arthur wanted to send both things back to the family but couldn't quite bear to part with them yet though he knew it was ridiculous as they wouldn't bring Michael back.

He was sitting in the hospital bed (he had been able to sit for the first time 2 weeks ago instead of just lying down and had been allowed to walk a few times as well) being treated after his "burning alive" as most of the doctors and nurses called it and he thought they were exactly right.

Someone had tried to come talk to him, some high up person or whatever, but he had been shushed away each time with doctors and nurses saying that Arthur was still suffering PTSD and he needed more time.

Arthur let that keep happening but eventually he got curious so now he was waiting for said high up person to come and talk with him.

When the person walked into the room he looked at Arthur as if questioning his sanity and then asked the nearest doctor if Arthur could stand.

"I think it would be better if-"

"Sure whatever" Arthur cut in and then pushed himself out of bed ignoring the spasm of pain in his entire right side.

Arthur grabbed his clutches and then followed the man out of the room and then stopped not wanting to go any further than necessary from the doctors, just in case.

"Arthur isn't it? I want to ask you some questions about dreams if you don't mind."

~~~

Eames jolted awake and immediately ripped the needle from his arm catching his breath after the dream that had just happened.

After catching his breathe he looked down at his watch then looked away for a few seconds before opening them again to see the time hadn't changed. 

Around him everyone did exactly the same and to anyone else it probably looked ridiculous since it was almost totally in sinc that everyone checked but to everyone here it was a necessary to keep track of what was real and what was a dream.

The group of 7 people (5 men and 2 women) glanced over at each other and didn't say anything but everyone knew what they were thinking, that had been the worst dream any of them had ever had.

"All right everyone needs to go get some sleep now, anyone would think you get enough while working but apparently not huh?"

The person currently running the PASIV smiled slightly and Eames smiled back slightly because he knew the guy was new and was feeling awkward and then walked away wondering why on earth dream sharing never helped any of them with their sleep (in fact, he had asked the others and they agreed, it kind of messed it up. None of them dreamt normally any more and often it was a lot harder to fall asleep but that also might be because they were all pretty fresh from war.)

~~~

Arthur stared down at his hands for a while trying to detect anything out of the norm and when he was satisfied that he was no longer in a dream he glanced up at everyone else who was doing the same thing.

They had been taught a few methods to tell the difference between what was real and what was a dream and all of them had adopted the habit of checking their hands (there tended to be something weird with them if they were dreaming)

They all knew it probably wasn't 100% to work but they were pretty glad of it right now.

Arthur stood up and walked away from the group to get himself some food and refused to look at anyone while he did knowing he would probably find the same horror in their eyes that were probably in his.

~~~

"Hey Eames!"

Eames spun around on reflex immediately wary and then saw it was just Jonathan, one of the people helping with dream sharing.

"Why hello love" Eames said smiling slightly while he pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it (normally he would offer one but he knew Jonathan didn't smoke)

"We just thought up an idea with dream sharing and we thought you might be interested it, we're calling it forging right now."

~~~

"Arthur you realise that you don't need to be so specific when designing a dream world?"

"Yes I have been told many many times Cara." Arthur said impatiently.

"Well I mean it's not like we are trying to trick anyone into thinking it's real are we?" Cara said "We are the only people using it right now and maybe some other military and, if everything is good, some people in training."

Arthur sighed slightly and then turned around to look at Cara (who he thought was very nice but she was a little bossy sometimes and also she looked a lot like Jess with her light hair and blue eyes that Jess had inherited from their mom while Arthur and Lucy got their fathers looks)

"Well it needs to feel real to people who are training so they are prepared for the real thing Cara."

The girl sighed again and replied with a "It feels real enough already if we try any harder it will be an even worse hell than it already is." before walking off.

~~~

"You mean I could change anything about myself?" Eames said in slight disbelief while automatically spinning round to look at the mirror behind him and studying his reflection.

Jonathan and the 2 others who were there nodded at Eames and he couldn't help but wonder what it would be like, changing yourself in a dream.

Currently dream share was just for military training (and would probably stay that way) but to understand it fully they wanted to try out everything possible in a dream which is where the idea of changing yourself had come in.

"Well lets give it a go then."

~~~ 

Arthur sat in his bed staring at the ceiling and wishing for sleep.

He knew he should be glad that dream sharing meant no more normal dreams (he was pretty sure he would see Michael with his one eye if he had to dream normally) but being used as a lab rat to test it on also meant sleep was very difficult to come by now.

When he had found out hardly anyone else had done it before him he had asked if he was being used as a test subject and, to his surprise, they had said that yes, effectively he was and that they didn't know of many side effects other than the fact he (probably) wouldn't die.

Everyone kept saying they were trying to work on a compound that didn't effect actual sleep but who knew how long that would take really.

~~~

Eames gripped onto the sink with both hands with his face dripping water into the sink since he had just splashed it. 

He had just been in an extremely horrifying dream and was trying to get over it and so he came into the bathroom to try calm himself down.

Once his breathing evened he stood up straight and looked at himself in the mirror almost laughing when he saw what a mess his hair had become but the smile died on his lips when he thought he saw his reflection change into another person.

Eames had been trying to forge for a while now but every time he tried something always felt off about whoever he was forging, as if the were just a ghost of the real them or that they were kind of flat.

He stared at his reflection and saw that he was still him but then he closed his eyes and become more sure that he had seen his reflection change.

He quickly checked his watch and couldn't find anything wrong with his surroundings when it dawned on him that he wasn't sure if he was dreaming or not.

"Shit I am going crazy..."

~~~

"Arthur!"

Arthur jolted awake at the sound of his name being called and instinctively tried to grab his gun before realising that A. it wasn't there and B. it was only Cara standing in front of him.

"You just dropped off, didn't get any sleep last night?" she asked sympathetically before adding "I think we are trying out a new compound today and apparently this one won't effect our sleep so much though they are pretty sure we won't be able to dream normally again.

"Oh right, thank God I need to get some actual sleep and I hate sleeping pills" Arthur replied and then rubbed his eyes before standing up and brushing the crumbs off of himself.

~~~ 

Eames walked down the hallway as someone he had called Nicole smiling widely when he glanced in the mirror to see his reflection, he had forged someone perfectly.

~~~

"We are going to have some additions to this team soon" said the person in control today.

Arthur looked at the woman, he wasn't sure of her name since he hadn't seen her before, confused. He knew there were other groups of about 4 or 5 like their one that went into dreams but he had never actually properly met them, just seen them across a hallway or something and even those occurrences where rare.

"Wait who's joining?" Ethan asked sounding as confused as everyone else in the room felt.

"The British government are sending over some people who have been testing out dream sharing like you so we can try improve it."

~~~

"I haven't been to America in years!" Milly said as she sat down on the seat next to Eames (who immediately changed his body language t match her; a habit he had picked up while forging) 

"I went once when I was 4 or something" Eames said back smiling just like she was.

~~~

"Eames this is Arthur, he's the one that's going to be telling you everything you need to know and vice versa."

**Author's Note:**

> OK that was a lot longer than anticipated! I wasn't gonna write that much but wow! (maybe it isn't that long when you actually read it but it feels like I have written a literal novel!) 
> 
> Sorry that you had to read all that and they hadn't even met yet!!!
> 
> Please tell me if there are any mistakes :)


End file.
